Flowdoku Review

Most of my university was spent playing Sudoku â€“ at least when I wasn’t playing my PSP, of course. I pride myself to be quite a skilful player, and the logic behind Sudoku is planted firmly into my brain matter, no matter how hard useful knowledge and skills try to kick it out. Most of the Sudoku-themed games on the mobiles are straightforward ports of the original Japanese game â€“ mostly because of its very unique rules, which every mathematician can drool over for eternity. So it pains me to announce that I completely suck at Flowdoku â€“ a game that takes standard Sudoku rules, adds a bit of spices, and puts it on its head.

The rules of Flowdoku are simple â€“ oh, who am I kidding, they’re not. Although the idea is easy to grasp, the rules are a bit strange, so many of the logic behind solving classic Sudoku simply doesn’t work. As in Sudoku, there’s a square field, filled with square spaces, which are grouped together in some way or another. In the simplest example, the field is 6×6 tiles wide, divided by groups of 3×2. Instead of numbers, the field is filled with squares, triangles or circles â€“ basically, instead of nine digits, there are only three. However, each group, line, and column should contain an exact number of each shape. In the simplest example I took, there should be three squares, two triangles and a sphere in each one of them. Furthermore, squares and triangles should always be placed next to each other, to form the groups of three â€“ not in all directions, but anywhere. And that’s it. The rest is just like original Sudoku. There are already several positions filled at the start of the game, and by tapping on any empty space, player can switch what shape is in there.

As I said, I suck at Flowdoku. I’m getting stuck in the easy levels and guess around the place, without much results. Although I understand the concepts at work, I still can’t feel them â€“ and it means that the game is quite challenging, and requires hours of gameplay in order for brain to see the patterns in it. Although Flowdoku doesn’t feature any, well, features, apart from the numerous levels of varying difficulty and two color schemes, its minimalistic approach to design is working perfectly, so the focus isn’t shifted from solving the puzzles themselves. I must warn that the game is quite difficult â€“ so if sitting for half an hour upon a Sudoku puzzle doesn’t sound like much excitement, then this game will surely put you into the depths of despair pretty quickly.

Flowdoku Review Rundown

7

Graphics/Sound - Stylish, but very simple

7.5

Controls - Pretty much, okay.

8.5

Gameplay - Incredibly difficult, but very interesting.

9

Replay value - Just as captivating as Sudoku itself

8.5

Overall - It's a great game, but it's for the hardcore fans of classic puzzles only.